October 6, 2003 — I was just finishing up my second weekend off as an R.A. By now I was used to the routines and schedules of the dorm and life was settling into some semblance of a new normal. I was pretty sure by now that my dorm mom was trying to play ‘matchmaker’ between Micah and I as he was always welcome at the dorm and she had invited him over for Sunday lunch to “thank him for all the work he had done for us.” I still remember being mortified that the menu she chose for that lunch was a little scoop of chicken salad on a leaf of lettuce beside a few small pieces of fruit and a croissant. A beautiful meal for a girl’s dorm, but not very filling and definitely not a ‘guy meal’! I was still spending time with the other guy and in fact, he and I and a mutual friend of ours had planned a trip to Paris during my weekend off!

And what a trip it was! Micah once again came to the rescue by providing the transportation needed to go on our trip, this time by loaning us his car. He was incredibly jealous that his car was going to Paris without him, but he had already committed to go on a school trip. It was on the way to Paris that my friend and I decided that Micah’s car needed a name and after some debate, I offered the name Sadie as an option. This seemed like a perfect name for a small little red car and so off we went: three friends and Sadie to see the wonders of Paris! I was nominated to do the actual driving once we got close to Paris and through the Parisian streets, which seems strange since I’m a country girl from a small town, but thankfully I’d had a year to practice city driving in Vancouver, B.C.!

Gardens around the Louvre

Paris was amazing! We couldn’t have asked for a better trip! Our first real ‘view’ of Paris on our first full day as we came up out of the metro was looking up the Champs des Elysées toward the Arc de Triomphe! Over the course of our two days in Paris we explored the Champs des Elysées, ate at cafés, wandered through the Louvre, enjoyed pain au chocolat from patisseries, walked through Notre Dame during Mass, ate crepes, and went to the top of the Eiffel Tower from where we saw a double rainbow and then watched the sun set over Paris! It was the perfect Parisian experience!

Eiffel Tower

While we were in Paris the other guy bought my friend and I each a long-stemmed red rose. I felt like I should have been falling head over heels for this guy at this point; I mean, a weekend in Paris, sunsets, croissants, roses, what else could a girl ask for, and yet, I wasn’t. I felt confused. To make my confusion all the greater when we returned to school, Micah pulled me aside to tell me that a friend of mine had talked with him while they were on the school trip and told him that he should be up front with me about what was going on between us. I would like to say that I had nothing to do with that conversation and while I might have wondered at times what Micah was thinking I was under no impression that I was due any sort of explanation. Micah told me that he wasn’t interested in dating anyone, but that if he were interested he would be sure to let that girl know. I can’t even remember what sort of remark I gave to him, but I do remember thinking in my head, “Okay. That’s fine with me.” Little did I know that things were about to change!

*Sorry for the quality of the photos – pictures of photographs don’t always turn out so well!